Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1887-01-13
Measuring Times Flight.
THE REV. DR.. TALMAGE'S FIRST
NEW YEARS DISCOURSE.
Many Ways of Marking the Pas
sage OF the Milestones of I ife.
The Earth Not Such a Bad Place
After All, But Worldly Pleas
ures Not the Best.
True Value Of Money-Good Acts the
Best Estimates of Time-Preparing
for Eternity-Ths Last Day.

| the Tabernacle the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage,
d. D., expounded some passages of Scripture
concerning the longevity of the patrlarchs He
gave out the hymn beginning:
My days are gliding swiftly by.
And l, pilgrim stranger,
Would not detan them as they fly.
Those hours OF toll and danger
His text was Genesis, xvii, s: slow old
art thought" The preacher said:
The Egyptian capital was the focus of the
worlds wealth. In ships aud barges, there
had been brought to 1t from India franklin.
cense, and cinnamon, and ivory, and diamonds;
from the north, marble and iron; from Syria,
purple and silk; from Greece, some of the fin
est horses of the world and some of the most
brilliant chariots and from all the earth that
which could best please the eye, and charm
the ear, and crafty the taste There were
temples aflame with red sandstone, entered by
the gatcways that were guarded by pillars be.
wildering with hieroglyphcs and wound with
brazen serpents, and adorned with winged
creatures-their eyes and beaKs, and pinions
glittering with precious stones. There were
marble columns blooming into white flower
beds; there were stone pillars, at the top burst
ing into the shape of the lotus when in full
bloom.
BEAUTIES OF ANCIENT EGYPT.
Along the avenues, lined with sphinx. and
fans, and obclsk, there were princes who
came in gorgeously upholstered palanquin
carried by servants in scarlet or else drawn
by vehicles, the snow.white horses, golden
bittcd aud six abreast, dashng at full run.
lhere were fountains from stOnc-wreathcd
vases climbing the ladders of the light. You
would hear bolt shove, and door OF brass
would open like flash Of the sun. The sur
rounding gardens were saturated with .odors
| that mounted the terrace and dripped from
the arbors and burned their incense in the
Egyptian noon. On floors Of mosaic the glo-
rles OF Pharaoh were spelled out in letters of
porphyry and ber,l and flame. There were
ornaments twisted from the wood of tama-
risk embossed with silver breaking into foam
There were foot stools made out of a single
precious stone There were beds fashioned
out OF a crOuched lion in bronze. There
were chairs spotted with the sleek hides OF
lcopards, There were sofas fitted with the
claws OF wild beasts and armed with beaks of
birds. As you stand on the level beach of the
sea on summer day, and look either wav,
aud there are miles of breakers, white with
the ocean foam, dashing shoreward; so it
seemed as If the sea of the worlds pomp and
wealth in the Egyptian capital for miles and
miles flung itself up into white breakers of
marble temple mausOeum and obelsk.
MEASURING THE PASSING YEARS.
II was " lHIS capital anu the palace OF
Pharaoh that Jacob, the plain shepherd,
came TO meet his son Joseph, who had become
prime minister in the royal apartment
Pharaoh AMI Jacob meet, dignity and rustic
ity the graCefulncss Of the court and the plain
manners of the field. The king wanting to
make the old conntryman at ease, and seeing
how white his beard is and how feeble his
step, looks Familiarity into his face, and saws
to the aged man: "liow old art thoum
Night before last the gate of eternity opened
~ - in Ia 4
centuries, the soul Of the dying year. Under
the twelfth stroke Of the brazen hammer of
the city clock, the patriarch fell dead and the
stars OF the night were the funeral torches. 1t
Is most fortunate that on this road Of life
there are so many miiestOnes on which we
can read just how fast We are going towards
the journeys end. ! feel that it is not an in
appropriate question that | ask, to-day, when
! look into your faces and say, as Pharaoh
did to Jacob, the Patriarch: How old art
thou!"
People who are truthful on every other sub
Juect lie about their ages 50 that do not
solicit from you any literal response to the
question have asked. | would put no one
under temptation; but | simply want, this
morning, TO see by what rod it is we are
measuring our earthly existence. There is a
right way and wrong way Of measuring
door, or wall, or an arch, or tower and SO
there is a right way aud wrong way of
measuring our earthly existence Ii is with
front you this morning, with the stupendous
question Of the text, and ask: "How old art
thou
JOYS FOUND on THIS EARTH.
Their are many who estimate their life by
mere worldly qualification. When Lord Dun
das was wished a happy New Year he said
Ut Will have to be II happier year than the |
past, for hadn't one happy moment in all the
twelve months that have gone" But that has
not been the experience of most of us We
tlOuVh hn is
with sin 1t is very bright and beautiful place |
10 reside in. We have had joys innumerabe |
There is no hostility between the gospel and |
the mcrrmcnts and festivities of life | do |
not think that We fully enough appreciate the |
worldly pleasures God gives us. When you re-
count your enj0yments you do not 20 far |
enough back, Why do you not go back to the |
time when you were an infant in your mothers |
arms, looking up into the heaven of her smile; |
to those days when you filed the house with |
the uproar of boisterous merriment: when |
you shouted as you pitched the ball on the |
playground; when, on the cold, sharp winter |
night, muffied up, on skates YOU shot out over |
the resOunding ice OF the pond. Have YOU
forgotten all these good days that the Lord |
gave you! Were you never a boy. Were you
never girl! Between those times and this, |
how many merctes, how many kindnesses the
Lord has bestowed upon you. How many
JOYS have brPathed up to you from the flowers
and shown down to from the stars, and chant
cd to you with the voice of soaring bird, and
and tumbllng cascade and booming sea, and
thunders that with bayonets Of fire charged
down the mountain side! Joy! JOY! JOY!
If there is anyone who has a right to the
enjoymeuts of the world it is the Christian
Tor God has given him lease to everything In
the promise: "All are YOURS"
WORLDLY PLEASURES NOT ALL.
But have to tell you that a man who esti-
mates his life on earth by mere worldly graft
icat:on is most unwise man. Our life is
not to be game OF chess. 1t Is not a dance
III lighted hall to quick music. Ii is not the
froth OF an ale pitcher. 1t Is not the settings
OF wine cup tits not a banquet with intox.
ication and registering. 1t is the first step on
ladder that mounts into the skies, or the
first step on road that plungcs into a hor-
rible abyss. So that in this world We are only
keying up the harp OF a rapture, or forging
the chain of a bondage. And standing before
you to-day, with life on the one side and death
on the other: song on the one side and groan-
ing on the other; mansions on the one side
and dungeons on the other; heaven on the one
side and hell on the othef-I put to you the
question of the text: "How old art thou!n
Toward what destiny are you tending and how
fast are you getting on toward it.
Again: remark that there are many who
estimate their life on earth by their sorrows
and their misfortunes Through great many
OF your lives the plowsharc hath gone very
deep, turning up terrible furrow. You have
been betrayed and misreprescnted and set
upon, and slapped of impertlnence, and
pounded OF misfortune. The brightest life
must have its shadows and the smoothest path
its thorns. On the happiest brood the hawk
pounces. No escape frora trouble of some
kind While glorious John Milton was losing
his eyeslght, be heard that Salmasius was glad
oil It. While Sherldan's comedy was being
enacted in Drury Lane theater Cumberland,
ms enemy, sat growing at it in the stagebox
While Bishop Cooper was surrounded by the
favor of learned men his wife took his lexicon
manuscript, the result Of long life of anxiety
and toll, and threw IL into the fire.
MisFoRTUNEs NO FIT MEASURE.
Misfortune, trial. vexation for almost every.
one. Pope, applauded OF all the world, has
stoop In the shoulder that annoys him so
much that he has tunnel dug, so that he may
20 unobserved from garden to grotto and from
grotto to garden. Cano, the famous Spanish
artist, Is disguised with the crucifix that the
priest holds before him because IL is such
poor specimen of sculpture. And So some
times through taste and sometimes through
learned menace, and sometimes through ply
sicai distresses, aye, in ten thousand WAYS, |
troubles come 10 harass and annoy And vet |
u Is unfair to measure mans life by his mis- |
fortunes, because where there is one stalk of |
night shade there are fifty marigolds and hare |
bells; where there is one cloud thunder |
charged there are hundreds that stray across |
the heavens, the glory of land and sky asleep |